Marilyn Jean (Tommerdahl) Johnson was born November 7th, 1941 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Walter and Helen Tommerdahl. Marilyn's younger brother is Paul Tommerdahl, who resides in Maple Grove, Minnesota.

Marilyn graduated from Anoka High School, and completed coursework at Northwestern Hospital School of Nursing to become a Registered Nurse. She earned her Bachelor's of Science in Nursing through coursework at the University of Minnesota. She had fond memories of working as a camp nurse at Camp Icaghowan in nearby Wisconsin. For the summer of 1965, she moved to Colorado where her brother Paul was stationed with the US Air Force. She worked as Camp Nurse for Camp Shady Brook in Deckers, but having found something about Colorado that she liked, she stayed and began working for Denver Children's Hospital and bought herself a brand new Volkswagon Beetle to get around with.

She became a member of Our Savior's Lutheran Church, where she met who would become her husband, Martin Noel Johnson (who went by Noel). The story went that she "liked his smile". Noel worked in chemical research and development for Gump Glass and later, Amax—from which he retired.

Marilyn and Noel enjoyed being outdoors, where they could regularly be found fishing, hiking, bicycling, or simply taking walks together. Marilyn also participated with Noel in a professional touring recorder group, and she would go on to direct the children's choir at Our Savior's, where she also taught Sunday School.

Marilyn and Noel were married at Our Savior's in 1968 and settled in Wheat Ridge, Colorado where they bought a home on a large, grassy lot dotted with numerous gardens in which Marilyn would spend many happy hours tending a variety of roses and other flowers, in addition to vegetables. She was especially fond of birds and her favorite was the Chickadee. She relished the many opportunities their paradisal yard provided to bird-watch, throughout her years living in this same home right up through present-day.

Marilyn was able to follow the evolving elemental vein of where she and Noel together found meaning and importance, and she retired from nursing shortly after son Paul was born in 1977. Daughter Carisa was born in 1979. Marilyn thrived in her new role, and took pride and found joyful purpose in the subsequent many years supporting her family as Wife and Mother. She was always involved in Paul and Carisa's academic and extra-curricular activities, sitting on committees and volunteering where needed. She was a cheerful omnipresence for Paul and Carisa, but also for their friends—many of whom enjoyed her loving involvement in sports and scouting and carry warm memories of Marilyn.

Marilyn was only a few generations later than the Swedish ancestors who first came to the United States. She regularly corresponded with cousins who are still in Sweden, and her children Paul and Carisa stayed with these cousins during separate travels abroad, and were taken to visit some of the original homestead, still in existence not far from Nås, Sweden where some of Marilyn's family lives. Her Scandinavian heritage was a large part of what made her days special, and it enriched holiday celebrations with rare delicacies homemade by Marilyn (famous for her krumkake and rosettes, tucked amidst the 9 varieties of Christmas cookies she always made "for luck", as is Scandinavian tradition), and Scandinavian imagery—still vivid and meaningful in the lives and celebrations of her children.

Marilyn was a professional-caliber seamstress, tailor, fiber artist and hand-crafter when she wasn't whipping up amazingly delicate, perfect pastries and home-grown, homemade dishes on-par with the best world-renowned chef talents, spoiling her family and setting the domestic bar higher than will likely be seen or experienced very often, ever again. Her home was a source of quiet, simple comfort and benevolent, pure delights for all who visited, and everyone was welcome.

The Johnsons became members of Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church in the mid-1980s, where Marilyn and Noel continued to serve as Sunday School teachers and leaders in the congregational community.

Marilyn was welcomed into her heavenly home by her parents and Noel, who preceeded her with his passing in 2016. She leaves behind her brother Paul, her children Paul and Carisa, and Carisa's husband Branden and their children Sebastian and Britta, to whom Marilyn was a loving Grandma and whose presence she delighted in.

Marilyn leaves a legacy and stands as an example of tenacious faith, pure love—given without reason, commitment to caring for others as exhibited throughout her professional and personal life, and of living a life rich with joy and unmitigated grace.